Racton Monument
Local highlightA gaunt ruined folly tower on a hill above Chichester Harbour, its brick shell now open to the sky
Racton Monument is a strange, tall folly tower standing alone on a rise in the fields north-east of Chichester, built in the 1770s for the Earl of Halifax. Follies like this went up purely for show or amusement rather than any real use, and this one has a triangular base with a taller round tower rising from the middle. One story is that the Earl wanted a lookout from which to watch his ships down in Chichester Harbour; another that it was simply somewhere to take his guests for the view. Either way it has long since fallen into ruin, and the brick shell now stands roofless and hollow, which gives it a bleak, faintly forbidding air. It is on private land and unsafe to enter, so it is a view-only sight, best seen from the Monarch’s Way or the lanes nearby, out on the western edge of the South Downs.
